Mumbai Indians captain Hardik Pandya admitted they haven’t played enough good cricket in the ongoing Indian Premier League. MI had earlier become the first team to be eliminated from the playoff race and also suffered an 18-run loss against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday in a truncated 16-over game.
MI bowlers did well to restrict the hosts to 157-7 after Pandya decided to bowl first. Nuwan Thusara and Jasprit Bumrah got rid of KKR’s dangerous opening duo of Phil Salt and Sunil Narine respectively.
However, Venkatesh Iyer scored a crucial knock of 42 runs off 21 balls whereas Nitish Rana (33), Andre Russell (24), Rinku Singh (20), and Ramandeep Singh (17), all contributed to get KKR past the 150-run mark.
On the other hand, MI got off to a decent start as Ishan Kishan added 65 runs with Rohit Sharma. However, MI once again kept losing wickets at regular intervals to fall off in the run-chase.
None of the MI batters could go past the 40-run mark and their middle order could not deliver. It has been a disappointing season for MI as they have managed only four wins in 13 games.
Hardik Pandya said after the loss, “Tough one, yeah. As a batting unit, the foundation was there but we could not capitalize after that and keep the momentum up. The wicket was a little up and down and a little tacky so momentum was very important. I think it was a par score, given the conditions, felt that the bowlers did well. Every ball that came back from the boundary came back wet. The bowlers made sure they kept taking wickets.”
On his thoughts for the next game, Pandya added, “Nothing, just to go and enjoy as much as we can and play good cricket, that’s been my motto from the start. I don’t think we’ve played enough good cricket this season.”
Mumbai Indians will take on Lucknow Super Giants in their last league stage match of the season at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai on Friday.
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